My Grandma in law is getting up there, and her husband passed a few years ago. The county just removed his name from the title after verifying his death via certificate.

Grandma now wants to add mom to the title, so she's in there and there's no question of who owns the land.

What's the best way? Will this help mitigate taxes? Do we need to have grandma "sell" an undefined interest in the land to mom?

Put it in the will is probably the best way for capital gains tax alone.

Yep she needs a will or risk other beneficiaries to potentially claim on the estate. Spell it out in writing. As for taxes I'll defer to the bean counters

My grandparents did a ladybird deed on their house. Upon their deaths, the property ownership transferred to their kids. Would be worth checking into.

Just noticed this is land so may not apply. Disregard.

Texas state law allows real property owners to record a "Transfer on Death Deed" naming a beneficiary to own that real property after they die. With a properly recorded Transfer on Death Deed, you do not need to go through probate court to transfer real property.

Quote:

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https://texaslawhelp.org/resources/transfer-death-deed-forms

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Good to know. I'd still do a will

OP, if you have not already done so, you (or your family) really need to speak with an estate planning attorney to do this right. Land title isn't like a bank account where you can just add someone to the title and ownership passes to them upon death. It doesn't even given the other person any authority to determine where title vests. That all has to be done with proper estate planning (a will, trust, or other title instrument). Some of the comments above are valid options (lady bird deed, transfer on death deed, etc.), but all that planning has to be done correctly prior to death. You also need to consider taxes and whether they will be an issue that needs to be addressed through tax planning.

Doing this right on the front end will save you tremendous headache and expenses on the back end.

One more thing. The county removing the grandfather's name from the tax roll based on a death certificate does not change title. If his estate wasn't probated, at some point for title to change some action must be taken. You have 4 years after a person's death to probate an estate. Oftentimes the primary reason for probating an estate is to properly and legally transfer title to real estate. Assuming the grandmother and grandfather lived in Texas and were legally married, they likely owned the real estate as a community asset, meaning they each owned half. The grandmother may be the legal heir of the grandfather's portion after death, but that transfer doesn't happen automatically. His estate needs to be probated or an Affidavit of Heirship or some other mechanism needs to be used the properly transfer title. The same is true for when the grandmother passes. Her estate will have to be probated or some other mechanism must be used to legally transfer title to her beneficiaries.

It's best to clear up title and address all of these issues before the grandmother passes away. I suggest finding a good probate and estate planning attorney in her area.